09 June, 2009

you're a tombstone in the mud, playing Twister in a bubble again

Some people have special problems. This is a sadly true fact of Em-behind-the-screen: I don't own a cell phone. I don't have a laptop. I have a very good music/video player, which pretty much reflects my priorities, in a sense: aging desktop computer, more notebooks than tech toys on the desk, but close to state-of-the-art .mp3 devices (I say devices; I have one really good one that plays music, plays movies, plays videos, stores pictures and can play audio books as well as be used as a book reader...and one pretty good one that's not got the nifty video screen, but is roughly the size of a lipgloss case, so I can just tuck it in some handy storage space--pants, shirt, cleavage...some days I'm not picky...and go out and about at will).

But it honestly never occurred to me that people might want to update their blogs from mobile devices. Put me to wondering which of the big journal sites actually support that capability. Because obviously with Wordpress, it's a fight, and it sounds like with Blogger, it's nonexistent, too.

Sling Trebuchet puts it wonderfully in a comment on the bots and camping blog entry:

Good Web search engines would not give such blind weight to keyword spamming. In fact they act to penalise the practice as best they can.

The Google Search Appliance (GSA) that LL use for All search was designed chiefly as an enterprise system. It therefore does not have to be very concerned with the gaming techniques of people who are determined to manipulate the rankings.

The good news is that the GSA does seem to penalise keyword spamming, but the bad news is that the bar is set stupidly high for a system used in SL and therefore exposed to the manipulations of muppets who are determined to exploit [every] loophole they can find.


While I remain terribly amused by the conceit of Muppet business owners--I imagine it as something like this--I also think he's right. And it's yet more evidence on what a flawed business decision it was to employ the GSA in the first place.

Two days back, now, the Primgraph launch party (or re-launch party) was a stunning success.

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We were at the bottom of the Vernian Sea in Babbage, in a sealed dome named the Lotus of the Sea Gallery. Miss Breezy Carver owns it, and it was simply one of the most gorgeous places I've ever hosted a dance. Truly, the picture above does not do it justice.

There were so many celebrants on-hand dancing, talking, just showing up to the after-party, not even fifteen minutes into it I mostly dropped welcoming people in by name, and just started sending out "Welcome, all newcomers!" calls every few minutes. Because that many people were arriving, every few minutes.

We had an absolute blast, Elrik Merlin played an inspired mix of steampunk and steampunk-esque songs, and I danced with a new Jager:

Girl Genius,Jager

Meet Maxim. Yes, that one. Even down to the red buckle on the hat. He called me "dollink" all night. I was quite charmed.

Coming up on another Thursday night Poetry Slam at der Hut, speaking of Jagerkin...this time around it's "earth" poetry. Whatever you can think of concerning earth as a concept or conceit in poem form, bring it on down. Remember our rules for poetry appreciation:

1. No push weapons.
2. All weapons must have temp-rez ammo.
3. Bring a sense of humor, you will need it!

Also, just out of curiosity...

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(Click the larger image to see exactly how many books hit me after the poem.)

Who brought Tobin's Spirit Guide into world? This was not a good idea!

Now then, a few additional notes. I should mention at the outset, sometimes, the nights are very strange at the work studio. Case in point: the arrival of...Bun-Zorro.

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Later on he got a cape:

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Just so you have an idea of the scale...

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Anyone who's seen me knows that I am not tall (save for lately, I seem to be wearing very tall shoes. Shhh.), and the current iteration of the studio is a 60x60 square megaprim. The rabbit is very large, then, yes.

[1:48] Fawkes Allen: Bun Diego de la Zanahoria is secretly Bun-Zorro! Defender of the common man of Bunifornia!
[1:49] Neome Graves: Right then.
[1:49] Neome Graves: So off to the Vendor supporting then? =P
[1:50] Midnight Bohemia: yes lets!
[1:59] Neome Graves: http://vendorsupportmonth.blogspot.com/


So off we went on the Vendor Support Month "hunt", dropping by the stores that sounded interesting off the website...though I did make one nearly fatal mistake at the beginning. Seen at Nushru in Cherry Park:

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MY EYES! Gods, I don't even know what I came here for! My brain has been eaten by GLOW!

Seriously, nearly the entirety of the externals for Nushru are set to glow. And they're all pastel...flowers, rainbows, trees, clouds....dear gods, I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

To the designer's credit, she's participating in something like six hunts at present, so if you get past the glow and get into the store, there's at least five different pairs of heels to track down and abscond with.

[16:13] Sanura Sakai: Oh, here's a good one for you. I bought some cookies the other day, and it lists that it contains... 38% milk chocolate, 17% flavoured creme filling, 8% candy pieces and 8% pink squiggles. *snickers* Because, well, ya know that 7% yellow squiggle just isn't right.

You do have a point. Also, what level of ingredient is a pink squiggle? Topping? Candy? Preservative?

Lastly, a new designer (to me, at least) found sidewise: Lyric Demina of Chain & Vine/A Rose Mourning. She's proudly and serenely Gorean, and most of her furnishings and poseball sets are designed with Gorean (generally, and specifically, slave-breaking) needs in mind. How'ver, the sets she has upstairs (where the link leads you) are just amazing.

I admit, I bought her corner chair on an impulse, even though it was only a couples' set. It's thoroughly charming, dark, and lovely. And her stated RP limits--"Shut your eyes and sing to me"--are evocative and enthralling.

Unfortunately, that gives me another inventory item, and potentially the need to get out of the work studio and throw up an actual house somewhere.

Damn. I was so enjoying being the houseless iconoclast. And no, the ginormous tree stump on ground level in Morgaine doesn't count. Technically, that started out life as a cave anyway.

5 comments:

Edward Pearse said...

People who want to blog from their phones are almost (and I say *almost*) as bad as Twits (them what Twitter). Can't it wait till you get home people?

Muppet is used in a pejorative manner by UK people to refer to someone who's incompetent - possibly a reference to only being able to do something with someone else's hand up your backside controlling you but I'm not exactly sure on the etymology :-)

Emilly Orr said...

Em < == now Twits :)

And ah, I get it now. That's terribly amusing.

Emilly Orr said...

Can't it wait till you get home people?

Hey! I am home!

*snickers*

HBA said...

Can I wait til I get home? No, is the honest answer. I like to be able to add and edit on the move and as long I steadfastly refuse to kick any old ladies under passing busses, I don't see there being a problem with it.

At home I have a small window of time for getting on SL and the computer and I can't get everything done in that window. At work I can't get on to the internet, or at least not in any useful-to-me fashion. Therefore I find my dinner hours and bus journies to and from work an ideal time to blog, tweet, email and write. So far without killing any old ladies, slapping any babies or in any way making anyone's life a misery.

Emilly Orr said...

Oh, I'm not saying you're wrong at all--it just was a problem that could arise that never occurred to me. I am only a semi-technical girl, all and all--I function best on equipment, code and structure from at least five years before the state of the art.

As I slowly upgrade to less dated toys, it may reach the point where I will feel crippled being out and about without net contact. But I'm not there yet. :)

hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...